i totally would have given this book five stars if not for the author's obnoxious style. the text of the book itself was great. a little dry, but packed with information. the problem was that the author put all of these boxes in the text with her own thoughts and process. it was incredibly self-serving, added nothing to the story, and in fact really hampered my enjoyment of the book. i could have stopped reading the boxes but i have a compulsion to read everything. the author also was incredibly self-serving and judgemental about the women she was writing about, and overall i just didn't enjoy her comments. but the book itself was wonderful. the story of these two women who grew up mainline protestants, converted to christian socialism, then rejected faith and put their faith instead in the communist party was absolutely fascinating. also, the story of how two women loved and remained devoted to one another over the course of forty years in a time when homosexuality was not at all acceptable. i loved reading all of the history this book packed in and how the history was seen through the eyes of these two women. definitely a great book. ( )